Existential Therapy

Existential Therapy The existential approach is first and foremost philosophical. It is concerned with the understanding of people's position in the world and with the clarification of what it means to be alive. The existential therapeutic approach emphasizes "free will," the ability to make choices that are not dictated by heredity or past conditioning, through which an individual can become the person that he or she wants to be.

Existential therapy is also committed to exploring these questions with a receptive attitude, rather than a dogmatic one: the search for truth with an open mind and an attitude of wonder is the aim, not the fitting of the client into pre-established categories and interpretations.

Following his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, Victor Frankl developed a kind of existential therapy he called logotherapy. Logotherapy is directed towards helping clients reappraise what is really important (most meaningful) in their life. Existential thinkers avoid restrictive models that categorise or label people. Instead they look for the universals that can be observed transculturally. There is no existential personality theory which divides humanity up into types or reduces people to part components. Instead there is a description of the different levels of experience and existence that people are inevitably confronted with.

Existential therapy by different thinkers or psychotherapists

Existential therapy stems from a branch of philosophy known as existentialism, which examines the meaning of existence. It can be traced back to the last century and the work of philosophers Kierkegaard and Nietzche. Other famous existentialists include Viktor Frankl, Rollo May, Jean Paul Sarte, and Irvin Yalom.

According to Emmy van Deursen (Dryden 2002) existential therapy deals with how therapists enable individuals to become truthful to themselves by widening their perspectives on themselves and on the world around them.

Irvin Yalom (1989, p. 127) is another thinker who thinks that there are four existence which include the freedom to make our lives as we will, finding the meaning of life, how aloneness can affect us and how existential therapy can enable us to comprehend these.

Another aspect of Ellis' existential therapy is that it is an evolving theory and a revolution in the field of therapy. According to Ellis, existential therapy is still a relatively new concept and not accepted by many. One of the reasons being that the field deals with both cognitive as well as behavioral; especially Ellis' RET which allows one to explore individual behaviors and emotions to various cause and effect. The dynamic nature of the concept therefore tends to evolve the concept as more and more individuals are exposed to it.

Albert Ellis is unique in the sense that he's furthered the concept of existential psychotherapy which in essence works in the interest of the individuals from the dynamic point of view that takes into account of all aspects of life and the emotional response individuals elicit.

What are the goals of Existential Therapy?

Living in the present
Increasing self-awareness and authentic living
Finding personal meaning
Coping with anxiety
Taking responsibility for decisions

There is no precisely defined existential therapy. In one sense, all therapists, regardless of their orientations (behaviorist, psychodynamic) can be said to be practicing "existentially" if they pay attention to the themes in their work. More usually, however, existential therapists are also humanistically oriented and often person/client-centered.